Zinc oxide nano particles alleviate drought stress effects on soybean antioxidant system during germination

In order to assess the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZO-NP) on soybean seed germination under drought stress induced by polyethylene glycol, a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design at the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran, in 2013. The experiment consisted of three levels of drought (0, -0.5 and -1 MPa) and various concentrations of ZO-NP (0, 0.5 and 1 g lit-1). The soybean seeds used in this experiment was the DPX prepared from the Moghan Agricultural Research Center. The results showed that drought stress reduced the activity of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, malate synthase and isocitrate lyase enzymes together with the germination rate, ascorbate and alpha-tocopherol concentration. However, the use of ZO-NP could counteract the adverse effects of drought, so that non-enzymatic antioxidant levels and antioxidant enzyme activity was increased and this improved the germination rate. Applying ZO-NP increased the activity of isocitrate lyase and malate synthase enzymes. Based on these results, it seems that the use of ZN-OP can be one way to mitigate the adverse effects of drought stress during soybean germination.